Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1912)

144 MUSINGS OF "THE PHOTOPLAY PHILOSOPHER" Emerson says somewhere, "Each man is, by secret liking, connected with some district of Nature, whose agent and interpreter he is, as Linnaeus of plants, Huber of bees, Fries of lichens, Van Mons of pears, Dalton of atomic forms, Euclid of lines, Newton of fluxions. ' ' This phenomenon is interesting. While we see around us every day unsuccessful men who appear to have missed their calling, and who might have been great had they followed some other calling, we observe that most worthy men sooner or later gravitate to their proper sphere of usefulness. Napoleon was once engaged in feeding cattle and in sailing a coaster. Edison was employed in a baggage car. Darwin raised doves. Arkwright, inventor of the spinning mill, was a barber who shaved for a penny. Hugh Miller used to rub down marble slabs. Henry Clay followed the plow. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a doctor. Lincoln spent most of his early days in splitting rails. Faraday was a bookbinder's apprentice. Pliny was once more proficient at pulling weeds than at anything else. Herschel was leader of a church choir. John Bright tended a loom in a cottonmill. Whittier was nothing but a sower of onions, and Bryant spent much of his time in cutting brush. Jenny Lind was but a housemaid. Mirabeau used to work at a vat in a tannery. George Stephenson attended the cows and worked on the coal banks. Dickens was a reporter. Galvani made soup for the boarders. James Watt was a clerk in a fish market. Patrick Henry used to run errands for a lawyer. Columbus was engaged in throwing the shuttle in the woolen mills. Milton was once but a copyist for a barrister. Garfield used to drive a mule along the canals. James G. Blaine was a teacher in a blind asylum. Franklin was a printer. Shakespeare was a stage carpenter. Moliere was a strolling player. General Grant was a grocer. Spinoza used to grind lenses. John Stuart Mill was an accountant. Morse was an artist. Eli Whitney was a teacher. Herbert Spencer was a railway engineer. Scott was a law clerk. Robert Fulton was a portrait painter. But each of these men grew out of their work and gravitated to those pursuits for which Nature had fitted them. Opportunity generally knocks at every man 's door, but if she does not, we must go out and look for her. We have a peculiar habit of idolizing the ancients and of idealizing everything they ever said. How stupid ! No philosopher ever made more mistakes than did Aristotle, and if we were to follow the precepts of Plato we should soon get in trouble. Some writers quote, say, Goldsmith, on a given topic, and think that they have cited an authority merely because Goldsmith wrote two or three great works ; whereas, those who knew poor Oliver most, valued his opinion least. We also have a habit of exalting everything foreign: if it is ' ' imported ' ' it must be very fine. While it is true that some things from the other side are superior to our own, it is well known that many things imported are far inferior to the domestic article. They make poor, cheap imitations abroad, just as we do here,., and they are made to fool the gullible. And they do. When they rave about the evil influences of the Moving Picture theaters, and tell of the myriads of boys and girls who have been ruined thereby, just ask them to name one of these bad theaters. If they name one, then it is your duty to join them in an attempt to have the guilty ones brought to justice. If they do not name one, ask them to find one. There must be more than one in every large city where the influences are not what they should be, and every person interested in Motion Pictures, or who recognizes their .wonderful power for good, should make it his business to see that that theater is closed down or corrected.